89
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurraySpike Lee's documentary When The Levees Broke runs four hours, but Lee arguably says what he needs to say in the brilliant opening montage, which cuts together footage of New Orleans in the 20th century, including Mardi Gras parades, segregation marches, and flood after flood.
- 100EmpireWilliam ThomasEmpireWilliam ThomasThe people do the talking in this rage-fuelled doc and only the stone hearted will fail to be moved by the resilience of the affected and the inaction of their government.
- 91Christian Science MonitorGloria GoodaleChristian Science MonitorGloria GoodaleCumulatively, the everyday voices of those who waited in vain for help that never came, mingled with the concern of prominent national figures, presents a poignant picture of official blunders and personal loss, and provides important national lessons if another threat this size hits an American city.
- 88LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenLarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenRather than take a histrionic approach, Lee trusts his four-hour running time, allowing the evidence of governmental indifference and incompetence to quietly pile up until it becomes cumulatively enraging.
- 88Slant MagazineSlant MagazineLee foregoes useless speechifying, opting instead to create an epic document of New Orleans’s struggle, death, abandonment and subsequent reconstruction (a requiem in four acts) that should prove instructive for years to come, if not in facts than for its emotional scope: an up-close, deeply empathetic and soulful journey through the stories that make up this catastrophe.
- 80The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawThis is a heartfelt movie, a documentary unafraid to spread itself across its vast subject matter, and a fierce denunciation of the arrogant political classes, still in denial about one of the biggest tragedies in American history.
- 80The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenAlthough seeds of hope are woven into this tapestry of rage, sorrow and disbelief, the inability of government at almost every level to act quickly and decisively leaves you aghast at what amounts to a collective failure of will.
- 80SlateTroy PattersonSlateTroy PattersonVoices pile in asking for nothing more or less than to make themselves clear. When the Levees Broke is a monument of oral history. Without fanfare, Lee orchestrates a multivoiced blues for the common man.
- 75Boston GlobeJoanna WeissBoston GlobeJoanna WeissThere are moments -- just a few of them -- when the film . . . does feel a bit like work, a relentless civics lesson about the storm and its still-unfolding aftermath.